so hard -- to hit ryan so hard that mitt romney is going to feel it too. from the sound of it, the vice president seems to be getting his weight up. >> what i've been doing mostly is quite frankly, studying up on congressman ryan's positions. i just want to make sure that when i say these things that i don't have the congressman no, no, no, i don't have that position or that's not the governor's position. so it's mainly getting the factual predicates. >> when it comes to strategy thursday, in this and only this, he may want to steal a move from dick cheney. recall in 2004 when president george w. bush choked in the first of his three debates against john kerry. there was a strong performance against john edwards. cheney took one for the team playing the attack dog and allowing bush to keep his presidential hands clean. although i'd like to see a little more heat from president obama in debate number two, he can still keep it cool and classy while letting biden go all the way off the leash. but even before the first presidential debate, the match-up between